


Mistakes Made Once

by orphan_account



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dark Comedy, Drug Use, F/F, Fluff, Humor, I Tried, Recreational Drug Use, Revised Version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 11:02:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3287873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short one-shot that goes in many weird places. My first work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mistakes Made Once

"Your floor, Miss Sato. Miss Sato?"

Asami jumped a little at the elevator operator's words, catching herself staring absentmindedly down at her bag. Even with thousands of novel mechanisms assembling and firing away within her mind's eye at all times, getting lost in thought was rather uncharacteristic of her. Today, however, was an exception. It wasn't crankcase layouts, quarterly estimates, or the double curve of Korra clavicles diverting her attention. It was the small bottle in her bag that burned through every other thought, frazzling her nerves since its acquisition much earlier in the day.

"Long day, Miss Sato?"

Asami smirked and nodded at the concerned young lady. "You know me," she sighed out and followed with and unconvincing giggle. Normally they would converse, but Asami looked somehow different today, and the operator thought it best to leave her to her thoughts.

As lofty as their titles were, the executive and the Avatar were the most affable tenets in the entire building. While most of other execs and mover stars pretended she didn't exist, she felt comfortable enough to ask them advice on courting the young probender star she fancied, only half-joking. Their bonhomie and encouragement had made her feel confident that she could reach that aspiration.

"Thanks, goodnight, and see you tomorrow." Asami said quickly but sincerely as she began to back out of the elevator. The operator smiled sweetly, pulled a lever, and descended out of view.

Asami let out a sigh and wiped a bit of moisture off her brow as she quietly lunged down the hall. While daring and adventurous, Asami has always been law-abiding. She was always well-behaved and reserved when she needed to be. Even with her love of automotive speed, she continued to maintain a perfect driving record, observing every speed limit and saving her leadfoot for the track.

Hearing Korra's muffled yelling, even feeling the vibrations through the door knob, made her freeze in terror. _She couldn't have known already_ , she rationalized as she clenched her teeth, turned the key, and pushed the door open. The young executive breathed a sigh of relief as she found Korra sprawled on the couch in her pajamas. One of her hands held the radio microphone pressed against her lips, while the other angrily twitched below a floating meteorite, which spun violently as it rapidly flashed various bladed weapons.

Asami's teeth clenched tighter underneath a weak and trembling grin.

"Even a footless badgermole could see how utterly moronic it would be to just redraw those territ-" The meteorite suddenly condensed into a perfect sphere and dropped into her open hand as she glanced up at Asami and smiled.

"Whatever. We'll 'discuss' it tomorrow." She slammed the mic onto the top of the receiver and returned the meteorite to its stand.

"Aaaasaaaaammmiiii!" Korra squealed, always elated to see her. No matter how hard Korra's day had been, no matter how bruised she had from skirmishes, how much her head burned from diplomatic frustration, simply seeing Asami instantly perked her up.

"Hey sweetie," Asami timidly replied, "Reiko?"

Korra groaned and rolled her eyes. "Reiko. Board?"

"The board." She anxiously giggled again. Technically, she wasn't lying. Her eyes gravitated towards her bag again.

Korra chuckled and folded her legs up as Asami fell back on the couch, setting her bag beside her. She picked up one Korra's feet and planted a kiss on the top of her curled toes. Korra stretched her arm out for a takeout box on the table, placed a glowing hand underneath, and as steam began to emerge from the contents, she shoved two chopsticks in and handed it to Asami.

"Cuddleclam and sea melon. Thought I'd get something fancy to celebrate our first weekend together in… something like two weeks. Sorry I started without you." Korra said with a grin so wide her it nearly forced her eyes closed.

She grabbed it and tried her best to make as much eye contact as she can muster through all the fear and shame. It's not like Korra had never acted this timidly before. She obviously and rightfully had been terrified when Naga had peed on the bed, which had tattled her violation of the "no Naga on the bed" rule while she had been out. Her punishment by tickle was so severe, that between weasy laughs and Asami coldy repeating "this is why we don't let Naga on the bed" through a smug grin, Korra had warned that her Avatar defense might activate if she didn't stop.

But this was different. Naga's urine isn't and never will be a violation of United Republic of Nations law.

Korra simply thought Asami had had a long day and a lot on her mind. "We should do something fun. I wanted to go see a mover with you but..." She pointed a thumb at the clock behind her without looking and shrugged. "Maybe there's a showing this late. If not we could just take a warm bat-"

Asami mustered all her courage. "I've got something we could try tonight- I mean, if you want to- we don't if-" Asami stopped stammering, calmly set down the takeout box and reached into her bag. Through all the rolled up schematics and fiscal reports, she had no trouble finding the rattling bottle. She delicately set it on the table.

Korra raised an eyebrow at Asami, then leaned in towards the table. It didn't take her very long to realize what it was, and when she did, her eyes widened and her mouth fell agape.

What Asami had set on the desk was a vial of Quenchies, small tablets that were almost entirely composed of the active chemical in cactus juice. They've been around for a while, but the home-purified versions found on the streets were gray and contaminated with all sorts of metals and hazardous chemicals. The collapse of the Earth Empire caused Quenchies to surge in popularity among the rich as illicit production of lab-grade tablets began to skyrocket.

Jaw still locked open, Korra bolted straight up, eyebrows beginning to slant. _This is where she enters the Avatar state and disintegrates me,_ Asami thought.

"Asami! I can't believe- You- No- NO. We are not-" Korra shouted, pointing at the bottle, then at Asami, then back at the bottle...

"You're right- Sweetie- Yes- This is a bad idea- I'm sorry-" A constant stream of quiet apologies replaced Asami's breathing.

"Do you have any idea what Lin would do to you if she found out about this!?" Korra was leaning over Asami, who was now balled up into the corner of the couch. "Do you know how many talks to kids I give about how bad this stuff is!? Where did you get it!?"

"Varrick, today, he, he offered, he said it, it, for stress, thinking, I-"

There was a sudden and lengthy silence. The room fell so quiet the motors of Satomobiles dozens of floors below could be heard roaring to life. Airships drifted by, throwing the rhythmic shadows of blinds against Asami and Korra's faces. Their glances alternated between each other and the bottle. Korra's pout remained, but her eyebrows began to relax. Asami was wincing, teeth clenched so hard they could crumble under the strain any second now.

"Have you ever tried them before?" Korra asked with eyebrow raised, still focused on the bottle.

"No. Never."

Korra’s lips still committed to the pout, but her eyebrows relaxed. Her expression had become one of pure curiosity. Just like that, her resistance was completely gone.

"Well, I'd be lying if said I haven't... thought about it before. I mean, if I'm going tell people they shouldn't... I feel like... I feel like I probably should know about how... how dangerous it is... you know? I mean, just one isn't going to hurt... or anything. Who's going to know, right?" She let out a nervous chuckle.

Asami felt horrible. She wasn't backtracking to appease her girlfriend-she seriously regretted ever putting forth the idea. _What a horrible influence I am_ , she thought to herself.

She wished she never accepted the stupid vial from Varrick, but curiosity got the best of her, too. As much as she loathed him, they worked well together. Varrick joined Future Industries shortly after the siege on Republic City, bringing his research from Zaofu with him.

The past month had been rough for even her. It had become increasingly difficult to convince the board to allocate nearly everything to R&D, and she spent many nights toiling away at fiscal matters, which she dreaded. She hadn't had a full night's sleep nearly a dozen days, and with Korra off saving the world, she often substituted both deficiencies with a different type of spirits.

Only in this state would she even consider Varrick's suggestion. Baatar Jr. had once stumbled upon one of Varrick's "brainstorming" sessions and had suggested Quenchies to him. He talked of how it often helped inspire him, and how he even got Huan to join in on what he would normally dismiss as a fad.

Asami hadn't shied away from... corrupting the innocent and naive water tribe girl in all sorts of ways. But this was different, and for that she felt insanely guilty. She knew Korra was having a rough month as well. But also, somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew Korra's boundless curiosity and daring would take hold. She never intended to take advantage of it, but it was too late now, and there was no convincing Korra otherwise.

 

* * *

 

So there they were, one hand each clasped together while their other hands each held a pill. They smiled, softly kissed, and downed the pills simultaneously. The chalky lozenge slid down Asami's throat, its bitter residue stinging. She quickly pecked Korra on cheek and went to get some water for the two of them.

Korra sat in silence, eyes beginning to wander around the room, completely oblivious to the effects already taking hold that began to impair her judgement. _Of course I'm not feeling anything,_ she thought to herself, _It's obvious. Look how small these pills are! I'm the Avatar. I master four elements, so I should be having four pills! Duh. Heh._ She dumped out six pills onto her palm, and after spending a few minutes pondering why four wasn't six, and what the other two elements could possibly be, she swallowed them all anyway and tossed the vial back on the table, missing completely.

Asami was bent over, her head resting on her arms, which are folded on the front edge of the sink. Two empty glasses sit on the counter, neglected. The faucet continued to run in front of her. "I really think we should go through with it. A navy and light blue rebranding would freshen up the brand, I mean, Varrick's going to think its about him but I mean, we both know, you know?" She winked seductively.

The faucet hissed back with a whispering voice vaguely like Korra's. "Of course he would think that. Forget the board though, you should go through with it anyway. It's cute and it's really speaks to a new era of the company under your control. Make it yours, girl!"

"Thanks, babe." Asami kissed the stream of water, and the faucet returned with lips sloppy, moist, and a little more transparent than usual. She forgot about the glasses and left, the faucet continuing to run.

She returned to the living room to find Korra sprawled out on the ground rolling and unrolling herself into the rug. "Heheheh Aaasaaamiii look I'm an egg roll heheheh." She rolled hard into the coffee table and let out an oof. A takeout box tumbled over, emptying it's noodly contents onto Korra's face. She gasped and shouted indignantly, "at least properly introduce yourself!"

Asami was laughing so hard she was crying. She dropped down beside Korra and began to lick the noodles off her face. Korra howled with laughter as she kicked herself free of the rug. Asami couldn't resist taking a big, hearty bite into the egg roll's beefy trapezius. Korra briefly yelped and resumed suffocating laughter as Asami continued to be clamped to her shoulder.

Asami continued to take big molar-filled bites at Korra as they rolled and laughed together on the floor for what felt like hours. Suddenly, Korra stopped laughing, sat up, and looked troubledly at Asami with big, sad, puppy-polar-bear-dog eyes, a pout beginning to form, causing Asami to stop as well. The sound of the faucet hissing away was joined with a similar sound much, much closer to them, and Asami looked down at the sudden damp warmth between them as a puddle began to grow along one of Korra's pant legs.

Korra turned bright red, eyes beginning to well up with tears, and slurred out, "It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. I can just waterbend it out. I did it a lot when I was little. I still do it sometimes."

Even without fully putting two and two together, Asami roared with laughter at the almighty Avatar's adorable confession, pulling the bedwetter's head close to her chest, lazily petting her.

 

* * *

 

It is often said that if you give a lemur a Satowriter and an eternity, it would eventually be able to reproduce the complete works of Pu-On Tim. And by that same stochastic process, the two had eventually ended up in Asami's study. Asami was curled up against a toppled-over bookcase furiously sketching away at a clipboard. Books, papers, markers, pencils were strewn around them.

Korra's drooling head rested on her lap. While Asami was still in her Future Industries work clothes, Korra wore the usual fur around her waist-and nothing else. The pants needed to go obviously, but whatever substituted her reason coaxed her into taking her shirt off as well, replacing neither. Modesty, or what she thought was Raava, remained, and encouraged her to don the pelt. At this point, her vocabulary was reduced to just one word.

"Ahhh-saaahhhh-meee-heheh. Ahhh-saaahhhh-meeeeee" she sang in between slobbery chortling.

Asami was in the zone. Her eyes occasionally twitched but never blinked as she tore through sheet after sheet, the pen nearly vibrating against the paper.

She thought back to two weeks ago, the memory replaying vividly.

She had woken up alone. Korra had been off early for an emergency with world leaders to discuss solutions to warring between two Earth states. The tall and usually graceful woman had slipped a little coming out of the shower, banging her rib against the edge of counter. As incredibly painful breathing had become, she had concealed the constant pain well throughout the day, completely composed as always.

Korra had returned home early that day, and before Asami could even greet her, she wordlessly carried her away from her drafting table, and gently set the bewildered woman down on the bed. Quickly returning with a bowl of water, she carefully pulled aside Asami's silk robe to inspect the large maroon splotch, skin slightly broken in the center, and gently pressed a radiant, water-encased hand against it.

"This is pretty serious, Asami. It might require more than one healing. We should probably get another bath rug for where you slipped."

Asami continued to be still, eyebrow raised, as she stared at Korra.

"Thanks, sweetie... how did you know about this?"

Korra froze. Her eyes widened and the water lost a bit of luster. "Uh, about what?"

"About me slipping this morning?"

"I, uh, Avatar senses. When I came home, I, uh, sensed your distress." she said, a little agitated.

Asami eyes narrowed, not buying it at all.

"Okay, okay!" She sighed, eyes sinking, "Sometimes I like to watch you using the spirit vines." She quickly mumbled, cheeks beginning to flush.

Asami's eyes opened wide as she breathed in the revelation. She began to giggle, but the pain quickly made her stop. "Did you watch me even when I-"

"Yes" she sheepishly told the bowl. Asami could feel the heat from her cheeks from here.

Asami understandably had more burning questions, but didn't want to embarrass the poor girl any further, so she simply put her hand on her cheek, eliciting a warm smile from her adorable little stalker as she rubbed back against her palm, and that was the last they ever spoke of it.

 

* * *

 

"Ah-hahaha-saaah-meeeee" giggled Korra, nose pressed against Asami's thigh.

It was that memory that held Asami's hand and pulled her to an incredible vision of the future. She soared through countless scenes in her mind while she fumbled for a clipboard and a pen to jot it all down. She saw herself in her conference room, and while the dour board members bickered with each other over next quarter's projections, her focus was elsewhere. A slim, black briefcase resided open in front of her and commanded her full attention. Beneath its glass facade was a live image of Korra waving with crooked grin.

The young CEO giggles, piquing the interest of the board as one of the members nearby and tries to see what she's up to. With a twitch of her hand, like Korra's delicate metalbending gestures, Korra's image turns into schematics in the nick of time. And then she's editing them with simple gestures, pointing at the endpoints to make a line. She gives a thumbs up and the schematic roars to life, pistons firing in harmonious order, all on the glass panel, a window to the infinite.

She's now flying from house to house, watching children gather around in front of these curved glass slabs, flicking their hands around to skip to their favorite parts of the latest movers. She's watching Korra in front of one of these machines. The water tribe girl was wearing a light blue suit with thick shoulder pads and thick-rimmed glasses for some unknown reason, giggling at a video of a fire ferret doing a flip and clapping to herself. _Asami come here you have to see this!_ Bolin and Opal are configuring their new Satomobile, which rotates behind the glass. He cooly holds up two fingers and the Satomobile is instantly refinished in a pale green. Opal nods in approval and he holds out a thumbs up, the machine returning a delivery date.

Suddenly, the wonderful vision begins to turn into a nightmare.

Korra gets frustrated at an ad that plays for Flameo instant noodles instead of the video of a cat-deer stretching that she wanted to see. Asami is back in the board room, with the board member peering over again, but instead of switching to schematics, she accidentally switches to a feed of Korra in her fur waist wrap only, who seductively growls, _baby, I'm your water tribe stallion._ Children are crying, furiously twitching their hands as words pour out on screen, defending certain romantic pairings in their favorite movers as others write horrible things back. An office at Varrick's mover studio freezes in fear as their machines seize up on a terrifying message from remaining Earth Empire loyalists, which threatens violent action against the release of a new mover that mocks their former leader.

All these visions soon become too much and too strange for Asami to handle and she falls into the glass of one of the screens as it all fades to black.

 

* * *

 

A warmth began to slide across Asami's face as the sunrise seeped through the curtains. She carefully tried opening her eyes but the brightness pulled the lids near shut. Slowly, the light became less stinging and she could catch of glimpse of one of her drawings right in front of her on the ground; it's Korra's face and crooked grin on a fire ferret's body, her face on a shapely polar bear dog, and her face on various other animals. She groaned and tried to lift her head off Korra's freezing foot against what felt like stronger gravity. Every joint and every plate of cartilage grinded, squeaked, and popped against each other as she groveled. Her stomach's audible cries of protest was the only indication that she had been out for more than a few hours. She looked over at Korra.

Korra was curled up on her side. Her eyes were half open, the salt residue from dried tears streaked her face. Her mouth was slightly open and obstructed with dense foam. Her head rested in a puddle of gastric juices and half-digested cuddleclam.

"Korra! Korra, sweetie! Korra!" She grabbed her bare shoulder and began to shake it. The her rich bronze skin was frigid and blanched. She gathered her up in her arms and put an ear to her bare chest. While it barely rose and fell, she could hear Korra's heart racing at a terrifying pace, one which Asami's quickly matched.

"Korra! Spirits, help. Korra! No. No. Dear, Spirits, no! _Korra!_ " She pleaded, slightly oblivious to the fact that perhaps the most powerful spirit in existence laid trapped, harmonically bonded to the catatonic girl in her arms.

She pulled open one of Korra's eyes. The azure had collapsed into a hairline ring around a massive black pupil, completely unresponsive to the bright light that shone directly into the vacant cavity.

Korra let out a faint and lengthy whimper.

"Korra? Korra! Wait right here, I'm going to call for help."

Asami sat her up against the bookcase, and as she began to run out of the room, Korra toppled back over onto her side.

It wasn't often that Asami felt so helpless. The prodigious woman was a genius by any metric. Within just a few years under her leadership, Future Industries had open dozens of successful divisions in totally new fields, no project ever going without her elbow grease contributed. She never thought about how there were more published scientific papers with her name on them than papers in a decade of Ba Sing Se University journals. It was almost as if she had a second, involuntarily active brain, which might have taken full control last night; one which always considered the origins, purpose, and function of every minute detail, and how such intricacies could be replicated. Thanks to Korra's casual musings one night, she was even breaking ground on understanding the discrepancies of airbending inheritance with correlation to eye color.

But _this_. This was out of her depth.

Asami quickly raced through her book of frequencies. She began to dial in Mako's frequency. As much as she really didn’t want for him to see them like this, busting Quenchers all day probably gave him insight on what to do in this situation.

"Unngh… Detective Mako, what's the situation?" grumbled the speaker.

"Mako? Mako!" she shouted into the receiver.

"Asami! Wh- what's wrong?" Clearly hearing the panic in the young woman's voice, he held back his rant about the time of day.

"Korra and I took some Quenchies and she's unconscious. I need you to come down here now!"

"You did what!?" He roared. "I'll be down as soon as I can."

Asami had nothing but her thoughts to comfort her. Even in relatively peaceful times, the couple had frequently found themselves in difficult situations. As much as Korra had grown into a responsible and wise Avatar, she was still a rambunctious prankster at heart. At times, this had gotten them into serious trouble. Perhaps the worst situation this year was when Korra entered into a blinking contest with Koh, her own suggestion, and after her near involuntary celebration, lost much more than eternal exemption from dishwashing duties. Asami resolved the issue quickly though, as her "brief introduction" to thermodynamics and thermal efficiency of various engines had coaxed Wang Shi Tong, the almost reluctant Knower of now Twenty Thousand Things to help them out.

Within seven minutes, Mako pushed open the unlocked door to their apartment. "Asami?" He shouted.

"Over here!"

He ran into the study and stared at the scattered books, the strangest drawings, the puddle of vomit, and at the center of it all, Asami breathing turbulently, with Korra tightly in her arms, now wrapped in a blanket.

"Asami!? How could you let this happen?"

"It was a mistake! We tried some Quenchies last night and-"

"Tenzin's been worried sick about her. Reiko says she hasn't called for two days about-"

"Wait, two days!?"

"Do you know what Lin's going to do if she finds out you and-"

"I know, I know! didn't call you here for you to just scold us! Look at her!"

"Well maybe I wouldn't be yelling at you if the Avatar wasn't dying in your stupid arms!"

"Will you just shut up and help her out!"

He quickly dropped to his knees, inspected Korra's eyes, and put two fingers on her neck. "Spirits, how many did she take? Okay okay okay. I have an idea. Go grab a pump of some sort, a kettle full of water, and as much tea as you have here."

Asami handed Korra's limp torso off to Mako, and when the blanket had fallen down in the process, he observed the bite marks that covered her body and pinched the bridge of his nose.

She quickly returned from her assignment and dropped the items in front of Mako. Setting Korra down, he proceeded to dump bag after bag of assorted tea into the relatively small kettle, occasionally compacting the leaves into the water with his finger, until the mixture became much more leaf than water. The firebender hoisted up the kettle and placed a sizzling hand beneath, bringing it to a tumultuous boil. Mako then inserted the base of the tire pump into the kettle, and drew the lever up until all the fluid had been sucked into the pump. He tapped the handle a little and once he saw the fluid sputter out the nozzle, proceed to shove it up one of Korra's nostrils.

"Are you sure this will work?" Asami asked timidly.

"I don't know. I saw it in a mover once."

Before Asami could protest, he shoved down on the pump hard. The concentrated fluid rushed out and Korra's eyes instantly opened wide. Her back arched violently as she gasped. She shot up and started coughing, tea sputtering out her mouth. Asami pounced on her, squeezing her tight, and proceeded to smother her with sloppy kisses and apologies. Korra was dazed, unsure of where she was, where she had gone, and where her clothes went. The nozzle remained attached to her nose. She was overwhelmed by her surroundings, but was glad to be back in Asami's loving embrace.

Mako carefully backed out of the room unnoticed. He collected the vial off the living room floor, shut off the faucet, and closed the door behind him as he left, still pinching the bridge of his nose as he entered the elevator.

"Long day already, detective?" He looked up and grinned.

 

* * *

 

"Without further ado, I now present to you Future Industries' vision of tomorrow, the Satobox." Asami proclaims, concluding her passionate speech that touched on the importance of communication. She grabs the silk cover and pulls, revealing a sleek, thin briefcase. It had been finished in a bright electric blue with fine flakes of platinum that scattered the light, the same paint used on the finest Satomobiles. Its chrome trim gleamed underneath the stage lights. The crowd erupts in thunderous applause. She proceeds to open the briefcase to reveal a curved glass screen. It glows to life and a voice begins to emerge from the box and the crowd hushed itself to accommodate.

"Hey, I'm the new Satobox!" The machine says in a confident and cheerful voice, hissing slightly under some mild static. Words spell out on the screen as the audience cheers.

"I know you must be thinking that my voice sounds pretty familiar, but I assure you, we're not related. I, for one, can't bend anything... yet." The crowd laughs and looks toward the Avatar, who's sitting in the front row, here to support her girlfriend’s big day. She’s blushing and giggling.

"I can't wait for you to try out spirit vine communication. It's going to be like nothing you've ever seen before. But with all that power and reach at your fingertips, it's important to keep some things in mind. Remember: be responsible, be compassionate, and be kind to one another."

After nearly an hour of thunderous applause, the audience heads off to the showroom to play with the new Satoboxes. Asami mingles with the crowd, Korra wrapped around her arm. People are congratulating them and asking them all sorts of questions.

"The display actually works like a small spirit ray. Magnets deflect the beam to make images, and the glass has flecks of platinum embedded to prevent any harm to the user." Answers Asami.

"Spirit vine connections are completely private. If someone isn't included, then they can't tap into the conversation. And of course, the other party must consent before anything is visible." Answers Korra.

They're both well-prepared and knowledgeable, answering technical questions about the product with ease. But one simple question catches them both off guard.

"How did you come up with this idea?" Asks one reporter.

Asami and Korra's smiles suddenly drop as they turn to one another and stare.

"Long story."


End file.
